May Lunch Calendar

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May Activities Calendar

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May Principal's Message

Greetings!

 

I can’t believe this is the last newsletter for the school year.  Time is going so fast and furious!  There is still some school time left and I would like to share a few ideas and activities that you can take advantage of with your children now, and in the summer.

 

Make the most of the final weeks of school.

 

Review your child's progress. Many teachers spend the last weeks of school reviewing for the core tests and recapping the year's work.  You can help your children review by asking them to show you what they've learned, or working through homework problems together.

 

Schedule a final discussion with your child’s teacher. Talk about the year as a whole and identify successes, but also challenges your child may face when he or she returns in the fall.

 

Help your children stay motivated about school so they gain the full benefit of their final days in the classroom. Have a conversation every day about school. 5

 

Ask the teacher for a reading list for the summer. Teachers often have lists for the appropriate grade level, or in some cases you might be able to get specific recommendations for two kinds of books, those your child may enjoy reading, and those you may enjoy reading to your child.

 

Tips for Summer

  

·         Plan family activities that are fun, interactive and educational.

 

·         Attend summer activities with your family.  There are many enrichment activities in our valley available for children when school is out-of-session.

 

·         Ask not only about subjects, but changes in focus. For example, 4th grade students usually begin to “read to learn” rather than “learn to read.” If your 3rd grade student is struggling with his/her reading, this summer would be a good time to focus on improving reading skills.

 

·         If you know your child will be studying history next year, visit local historical sites or borrow historical books and novels from Garland and Tremonton Libraries.

 

·         Summer vacation is a great tradition. It's important to enjoy the time off. But children can also learn while they have fun. In fact, the best learning occurs when children don't realize they're learning. You can plan summer vacation activities that are both fun and educational.  The trick is to take advantage of teaching opportunities when they are right in front of you.

 

·         Develop writing skills by writing to family members or friends.

 

·         Continue reading throughout summer. Visit the local library where they can help you select books appropriate for your child's age and interest.  Show them by example and share some fun information from your reading.

Bounce into a Book

Community Book Exchange on May 21^st

Bring your old books to school starting May 6^th-17^th.  Get a coupon for the number of books you bring in.   On May 21^st, return to school with your coupon to retrieve the same number of books.  Bring in 2, get 2, bring in 10 get 10!

This is a great way to freshen your home library! 

If you just want to donate we will be accepting all donated books. 

Please come on May 21^st to our book exchange, even if you don’t have books to exchange, for your child to pick up a book for summer reading!

See you all May 21^st!

5th Grade Box Tops Winner

The winning class for the Box Tops Competition between the 5th grade classes in March is Mr. Bennett's class.  Way to go!

DON'T FORGET BOX TOPS!!

The Box Tops Competition between all of the classes from every grade has begun and will end on May 17th.  So be collecting Box Tops and Campbell's soup labels.  Make sure to cut them out along the dotted lines, place them in a plastic bag labeled with the teacher's name and grade so your class will be credited, and turn them in at school.  The overall winning class will receive a rootbeer float party!  GOOD LUCK and thank you for your support.  This program raises a lot of money for our school.

2013-14 PTA Board

If you are interested in helping with some of  the PTA activities at the school, then we would love to have you serve on the PTA Board for the 2013-14 School Year.  Please contact Tarena Avery ASAP!

tarena747@gmail.com

Serving on the PTA Board is a lot of fun and helps our school tremendously so please volunteer at McKinley!

April Lunch Menu

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April Activities Calendar

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April Principal's Message

McKinley Elementary School is committed to providing a safe and secure school environment for all of our students, staff, and community members.  I have included the necessary information for most emergencies in this month’s PTA letter.

 

What is an emergency?

An emergency is an unexpected situation that must be dealt with immediately. 

Emergencies range in scope and intensity from incidents that directly or indirectly affect a single student to ones that impact the entire community.  Emergencies can happen before, during, or after school and on or off our school campus.  The definition of an emergency varies with the unique needs, resources, and assets of our school and community. 

Emergency management is a continuous process in which all phases of the plan are being reviewed and revised.  Good plans are never finished.  Our plan is reviewed and updated at least annually based on experience, and research.

 

What does McKinley School do to prepare your child for an emergency?

 

Fire:

Nine fire drills per year are required and practiced.

• Students practice leaving the building in a safe and orderly manner.
• Students practice leaving the building using alternate routes.
• Students who leave the building with their teacher practice staying with their teacher.
• Students will re-enter the building after an “all clear” signal is given by the Principal.
• If evacuation of the school is necessary, students will wait at the Tremonton Bus Garage and will wait for their parents/guardians.

Earthquake:

This is a procedure used in a sudden, extreme emergency where there is not time to move students or other personnel to a safer location.

• Individuals should make every attempt to put their heads underneath tables or desks to avoid injury from falling objects.  In addition, individuals should move as far away from windows as possible. 
• Students are to hold this position until the teacher or another responsible adult tells them it is safe to get up.
• Students and staff will drop to their knees and bend to a kneeling position with the head on their knees and cover the back of their head and neck with their hands.

Lockdown:

Students practice being sheltered behind locked doors with constant adult supervision.

• Students within a classroom are sheltered away from the windows.
• Students in the gym are rapidly moved to a locked area.
• Students practice remaining calm and quiet.
• Students are removed from the school site when the incident has been stabilized as necessary.
• Students will wait for their parent/guardians at the Tremonton Bus Garage.

The principal, teachers, and staff prepare and practice for an emergency on a regular basis.

 

Please see me if you have any questions.

 

Thanks for your continued support.  Please drop in and share with me any concerns or celebrations!

 

Mr. Chadaz

School Wide Box Tops Competition

The Box Tops Competition between all of the classes from every grade will begin on April 1st and will run for six weeks.  So be collecting Box Tops and Campbell's soup labels.  Make sure to cut them out along the dotted lines, place them in a plastic bag labeled with the teacher's name and grade so your class will be credited, and turn them in at school.  GOOD LUCK and thank you for your support.  This program raises a lot of money for our school.

4th Grade Box Tops Winner

The winning class for the Box Tops Competition between the 4th grade classes in February is Ms. Litchford's class.  Way to go!

We will be announcing the 5th grade winning class soon from March!  Stay tuned!

March Principal Message

Growth and Change is the Only Evidence of Life

 

Many parents feel that making a request for a specific teacher will help a child have a good school year. However, not all parents know there's more to making that request than just telling the school in which classroom you want your child to be placed.

 

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, your child may not be placed with the teacher you would like. It's important to remember that all children deserve to have the best educational experience possible and every teacher at McKinley Elementary is the best. To this end, the teachers and I work hard to make sure each classroom has a balance of different types of learners, personalities and educational needs. Many times a teacher has a stellar reputation as to how he/she works with children with learning disabilities or other types of students and a number of parents request his/her classroom. If all of those children are placed in the same classroom, the teacher will be overloaded, so an administrator may choose to redistribute the student population more evenly. With the many changes that are happening at our school, there is a strong possibility there will be eight new teachers on the staff.  With this in mind, we will not be taking parent requests for teachers. 

 

Information on the Placement Process at McKinley Elementary School:

 

Now that more than two-thirds of the school year has passed, along with Parent Teacher Conferences, we begin to turn some of our attention to transitions for the next school year. If you have been involved with this in past years, you are aware of the extensive process we use to place children into classes each school year.  This is one of the most thorough and significant processes in which we are involved.  Professional staff must consider all relevant information so that the greatest possible learning for each child will result from the placement. It is our goal to place all students into a classroom that will provide each with a successful learning experience. We believe this can be achieved by developing well-balanced, heterogeneous classroom groups across all grade levels using the data available about each child. We are working especially hard this year to make decisions using student work samples and classroom assessment data for every individual.

 

Phase 1 of the placement process begins now:

 

Our April, TEAM meeting reviews the philosophy, goals, and timeline for placement.

• Grade-level common planning time/PLC meetings are used to review the criteria to be used for placement decisions.

• Individual teachers use their assessments of his/her current students academically to prepare for the discussion of each student’s strengths, challenges, and needs.

• Teachers meet with specialists such as special needs teachers as well as administrators to develop heterogeneous lists based on learning needs, academic achievement, and ability. No receiving teacher names are included on the preliminary lists of students. It is an exercise in assessing the educational needs only,

as the top priority, and in developing balanced classes.

• We will be “cluster grouping” students during this phase. This means that each individual student will be placed in a cluster with learners of similar ability, interests, and skills that will be divided across the classrooms, making initial heterogeneous classes based only on academics. We are trying to group students who may work well together and have similar abilities, but still allow for flexible groupings for differentiating instruction. Classes, as always, are heterogeneously mixed as well as being inclusive of learners with special needs (there is a mix of all ability levels in all classes).

• These become the “preliminary class lists” and insure initial groupings by academic needs and abilities.

There will be several changes this coming school year with teachers and grade levels.  We know what we are doing and we will do the right thing to ensure that all children have a great education.  The teachers at McKinley Elementary School are among the best and we will continue doing our best.  We are making great progress in our core subjects and we will continue to provide an excellent education to your children.  There are no other schools in the district taking parent requests.  When requests are made it makes it extremely difficult to balance classes.

 

Phase 2 of the Placement Process:

 

Once initial groupings, based on academic ability and achievement, are formed, phase two of the entire process begins in

early May and is completed in time for move-up day on the last day of school. At this point, many other factors are

considered in addition to academic ability or achievement, keeping in mind that we still need to achieve well-balanced,

heterogeneous classes across the grade level. The additional factors considered during this phase include:

 

• Having a similar number of children in each class;

• Maintaining a proportionate number of boys and girls;

• Having a mix of learning styles in each classroom;

• Consideration of peer relationships (friendships, the need for separation)

• Delivery of special education, support services, and/or remedial services;

• Balance of students with needs other than special education;

• A student’s ability to handle transitions during the day.

• Teachers assigned to instruct that grade level.

 

Clearly, placement is a formidable task and is not taken lightly. We invest a great deal of time in this process.

 

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.  ~Victor Frank

Thanks you for your support in this matter and please trust us.

McKinley Morning with Mom

Morning with mom will be held on Tuesday, March 12th!  All mom's (or if a mom is unable to attend, you can bring a grandma, aunt, etc.) are invited to come have a doughnut with your student(s).

Come anytime from 7:45-8:20 AM.

Hope to see you there!

March Lunch Calendar

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March Activities Calendar

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March Box Tops Competition

Don't forget that the month of March is the competition between the 5th grade classes so send all of your Box Tops and Campbell's Soup labels to school CUT OUT ALONG THE DOTTED LINES-NOT THE WHOLE BOX OR SOUP LABEL in a bag with your student and make sure to mark the teacher's name on the bag.

THANKS and GOOD LUCK!

February Box Tops Competition

Don't forget that the month of February is the competition between the 4th grade classes so send all of your Box Tops and Campbell's Soup labels to school CUT OUT ALONG THE DOTTED LINES-NOT THE WHOLE BOX OR SOUP LABEL in a bag with your student and make sure to mark the teacher's name on the bag.

THANKS and GOOD LUCK!

January Box Tops Results

Congratulations to Mrs. Madson's class for collecting the most Box Tops in January for the 3rd grade!!!

CARPOOL INFO

Dear Parents,

We have had some questions and complaints about the carpool lane.  First of all, if your child(ren) are not ready to get out of the car, please pull all the way into the pull out lane and let them out there!!!  If there is a line, and no cars in the pull out you may go around them and pull into the pull out if you are following all traffic rules, as well as these expectations, you will not be pulled over or issued a ticket.  Do not park and walk child(ren) to the door because you are blocking our flow of traffic.  Also, do not let your child(ren) out on the left hand side of your car!!!  This may cause them to get run over by cars coming down the road.  If you are picking your child(ren) up at or near the second parking lot, you may pull around cars waiting in the carpool lane.  Children are not to cross any streets unless at a crosswalk.  Remember, our main concern is your child’s safety!

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

McKinley PTA (Health & Safety)

February Principal Message

February Lunch Schedule

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February Activities Calendar

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